


Shut Up and Dance With Her

by sanctum_c



Series: Aerti Week 2018 [3]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Communal Spirit, Dancing, F/F, First Meetings, Midgar (Compilation of FFVII), Party, city versus town
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:39:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27590117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Tifa wants to bring Sector Seven closer as a community - and by chance winds up attracting a certain flower girl to Seventh Heaven.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Series: Aerti Week 2018 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016011
Kudos: 9





	Shut Up and Dance With Her

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'What If' - and inspired by the Walk the Moon song _Shut up and Dance_.

The difference between Midgar and Nibelheim still gave Tifa trouble five years later. Going from once knowing at least everyone’s name to only vaguely aware of who she lived next door to was an enormous change. The population of Nibelheim was largely static, fluctuating slightly – mostly thanks to travellers on their way across the mountains. In Sector Seven, the population was in what felt like permanent flux. People reaching the city, people making it big and moving to the upper plate (a whole other chunk of the population living suspended above their heads!), moving to other sectors, losing too much and forced out into the less trafficked and more dangerous regions below the plate. And that was avoiding dwelling on the less pleasant exits; death to human or monster.

Barret could sympathise to a point, but most of his focus was on Marlene. His daughter was growing fast, curious and older than her years. A tragic fate for the little girl; the slums was no place for children.

“But what if they could be?” Tifa asked one day. She frowned, the half-finished thought taking shape.

“What do you mean?” Barret blinked at her. Wrong time of day for heavy thought; after closing and after clean-up. A night-cap to imbibe before considering how to get home; the sole remaining complication for either of them.

“What if we made more of an effort.” She paced back and forth behind the bar. “Got to know our neighbours.” Tifa whirled to face him again. “We know some people here, right?”

“Like Johnny?”

Tifa winced. “Not precisely like him. I meant more like Vogel.”

Barret frowned and his expression brightened. “You mean the weapon shop owner?”

“Exactly.” Tifa gestured to the doors of the Seventh Heaven. “He lives and works right over there and you weren’t sure you knew his name.” She let her hand drop. “We’re too isolated here. We’re stuck down here and, and, we let Shinra keep us all apart. We could be more of a community.”

“Sure, but where to even start-“

“Here.” Tifa jabbed a finger onto the bar. “We invite the people we live with here. Our neighbours. That couple down the street with the five year old. Even Johnny if we can’t avoid it. But I don’t want to keep treating everyone like they’re going to stab us in the back. I can’t believe everyone’s like that. Not here.”

“We ain’t Sector Six,” Barret murmured, nodding.

“Right.” Tifa folder her arms. “So. We going to do this?”

The eventual plan was something like a party. Aim to invite families – with or without kids and see how things went. Tifa and Marlene took care of the posters – little more than simple cut out letters on neon coloured paper, pasted up in and around the bar. But would anyone show? If their perception was to keep their distance, was the rest of the Sector thinking the same thing?

Maybe they were. But sure enough, people came.

The thinness of the planning quickly became clear as parents and children awkwardly shuffled into the bar, nervous and wary. No one was sure what to make of Tifa, Barret, Jessie, Biggs or Wedge. No one wanted to pick at the laid out food and the stereo in the corner’s low volume seemed to accentuate the silence within the establishment instead of covering it. Thankfully they had Marlene. Barret’s daughter toddled up to the first couple – the pair from just down the street – and befriended their son. Tifa used this as her own introduction. The couple were Alphys and Undyne; their son was Fisk.

The ice broke and conversation began to flow; Marlene and Fisk danced in the cleared section of floor in the middle of the bar and others joined in. Tifa served mostly non-alcoholic drinks as the day progressed. People came, left and came back all over again. Parents, older married couples, the odd teenager seemingly dragged here by oblivious parents. Sector Seven seemed to be opening itself up to itself.

The rolling group of attendees continued to fluctuate as the day slid into evening. Younger children taken home by parents who sought Tifa out to thank her for her organization of the event and how much they hoped for another event in future. Tifa promised another occasion. More older attendees, many of them regulars at the bar, but others unfamiliar. The music got louder and more people were drinking. The notion of this as some kind of family event fell by the way-side, but people were happy and talking and Tifa was not certain so many had ever been here before.

“C’mon,” Jessie said at some uncertain point as Tifa stared into the mass of dancing bodies.

“What?”

“You’ve been stuck behind the bar for too long. Go mingle a little more. Enjoy your little project.” Jessie grinned at her and it did not take too much persuasion to venture out from behind the bar. Most of the food was gone and Barret had taken something more like a guard post at the door. Fair all things considered, if the notion of needing to stung a little. Tifa settled onto a chair. Not easy to hold a conversation in the din the music had risen to. A flutter of pink in the midst. A gap in the dancers-

A stranger danced in the crowd. Metal bangles danced on her wrists, her long skirt sweeping around her ankles. A long braid tied with a ribbon swept this way and that as she moved. Tifa gulped. The girl’s eyes opened; a brilliant green. Pink lips. She was smiling at- Someone? Not clear. Tifa made her way back to the bar. “Who’s she?”

Jessie squinted in the indicated direction. “Not sure. Maybe- Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “Not sure on her name, but she’s a flower girl I think.” One of those who realised any hint of the world outside of Midgar would be vastly beneficial for its inhabitants; their work mostly futile and the flowers never lasted. “A good one; she even manages to sell on the Upper plate I hear.”

Some interval of time passed. “What?” Tifa asked.

“I didn’t say anything.” Jessie was grinning at her. “But I think you should go dance with her.”

“I don’t even know her, and what if she’s with someone. Or-“

Jessie grabbed Tifa’s hand and squeezed it. “Shut up and dance with her.”

Weird hollow feeling in her stomach, a strange sense of almost weightlessness. Far better to scurry back to the edge of the room and wait for the girl to leave. Or try and fail to attract her attention. Or- Tifa pushed between two dancers and was abruptly face to face with the flower girl. “Hi!” she said, her movements slowing a little, but she still kept pace with the music.

“Hi,” Tifa said. An oddly enthusiastic greeting. Odd to do nothing; she started moving to the beat of the song too.

“You’re Tifa right?” The girl grinned at Tifa’s nod. “I’m Aeris.”

“How’d you know who I am?”

Aeris cast around. “Heard it from a lot of people. Said this was your idea.” Made sense; people were talking despite the volume of the music. “I like it.”

“It’s gotten a bit away from the original idea-“ Around her people danced; some moved alone, others held hands. Along the edges of the room people were chatting and kissing. “-okay a lot away from the original idea.”

“Do you mind?” Aeris asked.

“No. The idea was to bring people together – or at least try to.”

“I think you managed to achieve that,” Aeris said. “I will apologise for gate-crashing. I mean, I don’t live around here, but I saw the poster and-“

“It’s fine,” Tifa interrupted. “Getting to know other sectors was a maybe future plan.” A future hypothetical. But at least something to aspire to.

“Off to a good start,” Aeris said. She glanced behind Tifa. “Are you free for a bit?”

Tifa glanced back; Jessie had co-opted Wedge into helping behind the bar; he caught her eye and mouthed it was fine. “I can be?”

“Good. Care to dance with me?” Aeris held out her hand. A heartbeat later, Tifa took it.

“Yes.”


End file.
